Offline Address Book Best Practices Guide
Microsoft Corporation
Published: November 1, 2006
Author: Exchange Server Documentation Team
Abstract
This guide provides recommendations and best practices for deploying and managing offline address books with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Office Outlook 2003.
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Contents
Offline Address Book Best Practices Guide
Introduction to Offline Address Book Best Practices Guide
Assumptions Used in This Guide
Who Should Read This Guide?
Terminology
Offline Address Book Technical Overview
Offline Address Book Generation
Active Directory Attributes
How to View the Offline Address Book System Folders in Exchange System Manager
Procedure
For More Information
Improvements for Offline Address Books
Improvements in Exchange Server 2003
Improvements in Exchange Server2003 SP1
Improvements in Outlook2003 SP1
Improvements in Exchange Server 2003 SP2 and Outlook 2003 SP2
Deployment Scenarios for Outlook 2003
General Recommendations When Upgrading Exchange Server or Outlook Versions
Upgrading from Exchange Server5.5
Upgrading to Exchange Server 2003 SP2 and Office Outlook 2003 SP2
Site Consolidation
Merging of Directory Services
Offline Address Book Staging
Specifying the Versions of Offline Address Book to Be Generated
How to Move the Offline Address Book in Exchange Server 5.5
Procedure
How to Create Offline Address Book Files on a Staging Computer
Before You Begin
Procedure
How to Copy the Offline Address Book Files from the Test Computer to the Intended Outlook Computers
Procedure
How to Deploy the Sequence Number for the Offline Address Book Data Created on the Test Computer
Before You Begin
Procedure
How to Specify the Versions of Offline Address Book to Be Generated
Before You Begin
Procedure
For More Information
Using Offline Address Books
Effects of Offline Address Book Downloads on the Network
Factors to Consider with Offline Address Books
How to Modify the One-Eighth Rule
Before You Begin
Procedure
How to Configure Certificate Filtering for Offline Address Books
Before You Begin
Procedure
How to Generate a Full Offline Address Book Download File When a Differences File Cannot Be Generated
Before You Begin
Procedure
For More Information
How to Manage Offline Address Book File Sizes
Before You Begin
Procedure
For More Information
Configuring Clients for Offline Address Book Use
Outlook 2003 in Cached Exchange Mode
Outlook2003 in Online Mode
Outlook2003 in Offline Mode
How to Control Offline Address Book Download Behavior in Outlook in Cached Exchange Mode
Before You Begin
Procedure
How to Download the Full Details Option for the Offline Address Book
Procedure
Troubleshooting Offline Address Books
Full Offline Address Book Download
Offline Address Book Sequence Number
Server-Side Address List Name
How to View the Name of an Offline Address List
Procedure
Offline Address Book Best Practices Guide Resources
Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles
Exchange Server 2003 Guides
Technical Articles
WebCasts
Web Sites
Copyright
1
Offline Address Book Best Practices Guide
This guide provides recommendations and best practices for deploying and managing offline address books with Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003. Whether you are deploying a new Exchange Server 2003 messaging system or upgrading from a previous Exchange version, this guide gives you best practice recommendations, including recommendations on how to optimize offline address book usage in a variety of scenarios. In addition, this guide provides troubleshooting information related to the most common issues that you may encounter when using offline address books.
Note:
Download Offline Address Book Best Practices Guide to print or read offline.
Introduction to Offline Address Book Best Practices Guide
This guide provides recommendations and best practices for deploying and managing offline address books with Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003. Whether you are deploying a new Exchange Server 2003 messaging system or upgrading from a previous Exchange version, this guide gives you best practice recommendations, including recommendations on how to optimize offline address book usage in a variety of scenarios. In addition, this guide addresses the most common issues that you may encounter when using offline address books.
Assumptions Used in This Guide
The following assumptions were made for this guide:
This guide is based on Exchange Server2003 with Service Pack2 (SP2). Exchange Server2003 SP2 includes enhancements that improve the offline address book experience.
This guide is also based on Outlook2003 with SP2. Outlook2003 SP2 also includes enhancements for offline address books. For more information about Outlook 2003 SP2, see the Microsoft Office Online Web site.
Note:
Both Exchange Server 2003 SP2 and Outlook 2003 SP2 introduce Offline Address Book version 4 (OAB v4). You can use this guide to help you deploy and manage offline address books even if you do not run Exchange Server 2003 SP2 and Outlook 2003 SP2. However, you will not be able to use the improvements to offline address books that have been introduced with OAB v4. For detailed information about the offline address book improvements that have been added since the original releases of Exchange Server 2003 and Outlook 2003, see Improvements for Offline Address Books.
This guide includes many details to help you understand, deploy, and use OAB v4. For additional information about offline address book v4, see OAB Version 4 in Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 and How Outlook 2003 SP2 and Exchange Server 2003 SP2 OAB Version 4 Work Together. For a list of resources referenced in this guide and other resources that can help you manage offline address books, see Offline Address Book Best Practices Guide Resources.
Who Should Read This Guide?
Although almost anyone with a technical background can benefit from reading this guide, it is designed to produce maximum benefits for the following professionals:
IT professionalsThose individuals who specialize in troubleshooting the difficulties that end users have with their messaging environment.
Messaging system architectsThose individuals responsible for planning and crafting overall business strategies and solutions.
Exchange Server and Outlook administratorsThose individuals responsible for installation, maintenance, and administration of Exchange Server and Outlook software in the enterprise.
Terminology
Before reading further, familiarize yourself with the following terms.
Offline address bookAn offline address book is a container that stores a collection of offline address lists. Administrators configure available offline address books, and Outlook users can choose which offline address lists they want to download.
Offline address listAn offline address list is a set of address lists in files that are created and stored on an offline address list server. Users who work offline can connect to an Exchange Server computer and download offline address lists to obtain information about other users in the organization. When you create an offline address book, the specified address lists are converted to a separate set of files and stored in a public folder. When users download the offline address book, this data file is used as the source of information. Offline address books typically contain at least one address list that represents the global address list (GAL). Users who are working offline can use this global address list with Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) e-mail clients.
For more information about other Exchange-related terms, see the Exchange Server2003 Glossary.
Offline Address Book Technical Overview
This topic provides a brief technical overview of offline address books. It discusses how offline address books are generated, and where offline address book objects are stored in the Active Directory® directory service.
Offline Address Book Generation
Microsoft® Office Outlook®2003 uses the offline address book to provide offline access to directory information from the global address list (GAL) and from other address lists. Each night, Exchange generates new offline address book files and places them in a special public folder, known as a system folder, for Outlook to download. The offline address book files are compressed before they are added to the offline address book system folders so that the download to Outlook is minimal. Outlook is scheduled to check periodically for new offline address book files in these system folders, and download the required files.
Outlook2003 has many new features and enhancements that are related to the offline address book. By using the offline address book, Outlook does not need to connect to Active Directory for common operations such as resolving recipient names, browsing the address list, or retrieving address details. The available functions are limited, but they are similar to the GAL (and other address lists) when working on the network.
Several Exchange Server components work with Active Directory to generate and maintain offline address books. After an offline address book has been created (either automatically by Exchange Setup or manually by an administrator using Exchange System Manager), Exchange Server and Active Directory work together to maintain the offline address book, keeping it synchronized with changes that may be made in the directory.
System folders can be displayed in Exchange System Manager, enabling an administrator to view the files that make up the offline address book. The following figures shows the Offline Address Book system folders in Exchange System Manager.
For detailed steps, see How to View the Offline Address Book System Folders in Exchange System Manager.
Each of the Exchange Server and Active Directory components involved in generating and maintaining offline address books is described as follows:
Microsoft Exchange System AttendantResponsible for generating the offline address book. The System Attendant calls Oabgen.dll. This is a MAPI application (referred to as OABGen) that reads from Active Directory. On a server running Exchange Server 2003 SP2, the first time an offline address book is created, OABGen creates the OAB Version2, OAB Version3a, and OAB Version4 folders. You can specify the versions of offline address books that are generated. For detailed steps, see How to Specify the Versions of Offline Address Book to Be Generated.
Note:
On a server running Exchange Server2003 SP1, the first time an offline address book is created, OABGen creates the OAB Version2 and OAB Version3a folders.
Every time OABGen runs, it performs several tasks:
It creates the files for all offline address book versions.
It compresses the files.
It creates posts in the system folders for each version of the offline address that it is configured to generate. The offline address book files will be saved as attachments on the posts in the folders.
It creates incremental offline address book files containing daily changes. The default setting in Exchange Server2003 is to generate an offline address book incremental file every morning at 05:00.
Microsoft Exchange Information StoreResponsible for storing the offline address book system folders listed directly under the OFFLINE ADDRESS BOOK. Each time a new offline address book is created, the corresponding offline address book system folders are created, including the containers, such as EX:/o=<Organization Name>/ou=<Administrative Group>, and /o=<OrganizationName>/cn=addrlists/cn=oabs/cn=<name of Offline Address List> during nightly online maintenance.
Directory serversActive Directory servers are utilized in the offline address book generation. Offline address book configuration data is stored in the Configuration Naming Context partition in Active Directory, making it available to all domain controllers. In addition, global address list information is stored in global catalog servers.
Recipient Update ServiceAlthough offline address book generation does not require the Recipient Update Service, address lists do require this component. The System Attendant calls the Recipient Update Service, which in turn maintains the address list membership on recipients. If the address list is blank, the offline address book generation will fail.
Active Directory Attributes
A properly configured Active Directory is a necessary component for offline address book generation to work correctly with Exchange Server2003. In addition to address lists, and the objects that make up those lists, the offline address book has its own directory attributes. Issues with Active Directory could result in issues with the offline address book. For example, interruptions in or a failure of Active Directory replication could prevent newly added directory objects from appearing in the offline address book.
Offline address book information is stored in two places. The offline address book content is stored in the NON IPM SUBTREE of the public folder hierarchy, and offline address book objects are stored in the Configuration Naming Context in Active Directory (under CN=Offline Address Lists,CN=Address Lists Container,CN=<OrganizationName>,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=<DomainName>,DC=<DomainNameExtension>). Like all directory objects, offline address books have several attributes that control behavior and other elements.
How to View the Offline Address Book System Folders in Exchange System Manager
System folders can be displayed in Exchange System Manager, enabling an administrator to view the files that make up the offline address book.
Procedure
To view the offline address book system folders in Exchange System Manager
1.Open Exchange System Manager.2.Under the Organization object, expand Folders. If you do not see Folders under the Organization object, it indicates that Administrative Groups are being displayed in Exchange System Manager. In that event, expand Administrative Groups, expand an Administrative Group, and then expand Folders.
3.Right-click Public Folders, and select View System Folders.
4.Expand Public Folders, and then expand OFFLINE ADDRESS BOOK.
5.Select and expand the applicable offline address book folder. For example, the default offline address book folder will have the name of /o=<ExchangeOrgName>/cn=addrlists/cn=oabs/cn=Default Offline Address List.
6.Select the applicable offline address book version folder, and click the Content tab.
For More Information
For information about the offline address books that are created by default, see "Offline Address Book Generation" in Offline Address Book Technical Overview.
Improvements for Offline Address Books
This topic describes recent improvements made to offline address books. Both Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 introduced Offline Address Book v3(a), which included improvements to the offline address book. Additionally, both Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Exchange Server 2003 and Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Outlook 2003 included additional enhancements to the offline address book. Finally, both Exchange Server 2003 SP2 and Outlook 2003 SP2 introduce Offline Address Book version 4 (OAB v4). Offline address book v4 includes significant performance improvements as well as other improvements over previous versions of offline address book.
Note:
To use the changes in OAB v4, your offline address book servers must be running Exchange Server 2003 SP2 or later, and your Outlook clients must be running Outlook 2003 SP2 or later in the Unicode format. For information about Outlook 2003 SP2, see the Microsoft Office Online Web site.
Improvements in Exchange Server 2003
Exchange Server2003 introduces a new offline address book format called offline address book v3(a). Offline address book v3(a) is stored in a system folder named OAB Version3a. Offline address book v3(a) adds support for storing the offline address book in Unicode. Previous versions of the offline address book store their data in American National Standards Institute (ANSI) format.
Inside Exchange System Manager, the new system folder can be found listed after the OAB Version2 folder. The OAB Version2 folder contains a set of offline address books in ANSI character set format that are used by Outlook2003 through Outlook97. Each message object in the folder represents a generation of the offline address book (that generally occurs daily). The message object contains several highly compressed files. These files hold the offline address book data. In addition, changes are created from the previous generation in a file that is named Changes.oab, so Outlook only has to download changes that occurred since the last download.
The OAB Version3a folder contains a set of offline address books that are in Unicode format. These offline address books are used by Outlook2003. When you log on to Outlook2003, Outlook2003 verifies the existence of this folder and uses the Unicode files if they are available. It is preferable for Outlook2003 to use the Unicode files over the older ANSI format files that are in the OAB Version2 child folder.
Improvements in Exchange Server2003 SP1
Exchange Server2003 SP1 provides additional control to Exchange administrators by providing them with the ability to limit the number of concurrent full offline address book downloads that can occur on each public folder server. Service Pack1 also includes offline address book monitoring enhancements that provide new logging of errors and exceptions that occur.
Offline Address Book Download Throttling
In Exchange Server2003, every request for a full offline address book download is served immediately. For example, if a public folder serving 10,000 users gets 1,000 requests in one hour, and the offline address book size is 5 MB, the server will be transmitting 5 GB of data. Depending on the speed of network links and the amount of available bandwidth, such a volume of traffic could potentially overload the network for an extended period.